Six 2015 books from MIT Sloan faculty members

Looking for a last-minute gift or some holiday break reading? Here are six new books from MIT Sloan faculty members in 2015.

Strategy Rules: Five Timeless Lessons from Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs

By Michael Cusumano, professor, and David Yoffie, professor at Harvard Business School

Michael Cusumano has spent decades studying the tech giants of the last computing wave — Microsoft, Apple, Intel. And David Yoffie has been on Intel’s board of directors since 1989, working with former CEO Andy Grove.

In Strategy Rules, Cusumano and Yoffie examine the careers of Gates, Grove, and Jobs to develop a set of rules for corporate leaders in all industries. With a new set of technology giants ascending, the book is a fascinating examination of three iconic leaders.

Read a Q&A about Strategy Rules with Michael Cusumano. Buy the book at Harper Collins.

Shaping the Future of Work: What Future Worker, Business, Government, and Education Leaders Need to Do For All to Prosper

By Thomas Kochan, professor

Drawing on history, but looking far into the future, Thomas Kochan presents a comprehensive strategy to develop “a new social contract suitable to today’s economy and workforce.” The book draws on Kochan’s 40 years of work with business, government, and labor leaders, as well as a recent MIT online course about the future of work.

Buy the book at Business Expert Press.

Handbook of Collective Intelligence

Edited by Thomas Malone, professor, and Michael Bernstein, assistant professor at Stanford University

As director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, Thomas Malone convenes leaders in computer science, psychology, climate science, and other fields to solve problems in our interconnected world. Here, he curates a series of essays on the newest research on collective intelligence. The book includes “The Wisdom of Crowds vs. the Madness of Mobs” by MIT Sloan Professor Andrew Lo.

Buy the book at MIT Press.

Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World

By Donald Sull, senior lecturer, and Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, professor at Stanford University

Life is hard. Decisions don’t have to be. As an expert in managing in turbulent markets, Donald Sull knows about making important decisions. In Simple Rules, Sull and Eisenhardt show readers how to develop their own rules to combat complexity in any situation, whether running a TV show (Tina Fey’s “30 Rock” is cited as an example) or engineering an innovative new product.

Buy the book at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

For those looking for a deeper dive into an entrepreneurial roadmap or dynamic modeling, try these very MIT books:

Bringing a Hardware Product to Market: Navigating the Wild Ride From Concept to Mass Production

By Elaine Chen, senior lecturer

There are legions of how-to books on getting your software startup’s first product off the ground. But hardware products tend to take longer, cost more, and face unique regulatory challenges.

An alumnus of Rethink Robotics and SensAble Technologies, Elaine Chen knows how to navigate the hardware innovation path. A PDF of her book is available free, but if you’re giving it as a gift, you can buy a paperback or Kindle copy at Amazon.

Analytical Methods for Dynamic Modelers

Edited by Hazhir Rahmandad, assistant professor, Rogelio Oliva, associate professor at Texas A&M University, and Nathaniel D. Osgood, associate professor at University of Saskatchewan

While more technical than the other books here, this graduate-level introduction to dynamic modeling methods has earned accolades for its timeliness and usefulness to readers at a variety of experience levels. MIT Sloan contributors include Professor John Sterman and Assistant Professor David Keith.

Buy the book at MIT Press.